2-father babies a possibility 'in two years', research suggests

Babies of same-sex couples are becoming a future prospect, as scientists have disclosed revolutionary research on making human egg and sperm cells using the skin of two adults.

It means that we might soon see a fully “dish-manufactured” baby,
the Sunday Times reported.

The study was carried out by Cambridge University and Israel’s
Weizmann Institute of Science, and funded by the Wellcome Trust.

The peculiarity of stem cells is that they can be modified into
any tissue in the body.

“We have succeeded in the first and most important step of
this process, which is to show we can make these very early human
stem cells in a dish,” Azim Surani, professor of physiology
and reproduction at Cambridge, who heads the project and
participated in the creation of the first test-tube baby in 1978,
told the Sunday Times.

After producing engineered sperm cells, the researchers compared
these with natural human stem cells from aborted fetuses, and
checked that the two had identical characteristics.

“I am not in favor of creating engineered humans and the
social and ethical implications . . . need to be thought through,
but I am very confident it will work and will be very relevant to
anyone who has lost their fertility through disease,” Jacob
Hanna added.

As the Israeli researcher states, there is controversy connected
with implementing the breakthrough discovery, both ethical and
legal. The use of engineered sperm and egg cells could lead to
changes in the law, the Sunday Times reported.

At the center of the
ethical debate is the concept of people“designing”their children, ahead of the motion
to approve the so-called“three-parent baby”technology at the House of Lords
later this week.

Lately, leading scientists across the globe have been warning the
UK government over their plans to introduce laws that would allow
the production of embryos using genetic material from three
adults.